The report said the tooth decay may often have been preventable.
Photograph: Alamy

Tens of thousands of children have had decaying teeth removed in hospitals in England, according to the latest figures, which show an increase for the fourth year in a row.

There has been a rise of almost 10% in child hospital admissions for severe tooth decay in England over a four-year period, with the report’s authors pointing out “a strong correlation between area deprivation and the rate of tooth extraction”.

More than 128,000 children aged 10 and under have needed at least one removed since 2011, often in cases where the decay may have been preventable.

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There were 14,445 admissions of children aged five and under between April 2014 and March the following year, and a further 19,336 cases of six- to10-year-olds having teeth taken out in hospital in the same period. More boys than girls were likely to have suffered from severe tooth decay.

The rate of tooth extraction among the most deprived children is almost five times that for those from the least deprived decile, according to the statistics analysed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

In Yorkshire and the Humber, the tooth extraction rate was more than five times that for the east of England. London had the most children who needed to be admitted to hospital for severe tooth decay, with 8,362 having teeth removed.

Prof Nigel Hunt, the dean of the dental surgery faculty at the Royal College of Surgeons, said the 9.81% increase was unacceptable.

“Not only is tooth decay distressing to children and parents, it has serious social and financial implications,” he said. “The need for tooth extraction continues to be the number one reason why five- to nine-year-old children are admitted to hospital. This issue urgently needs to be addressed, especially since 90% of tooth decay is preventable.”

The report’s authors say the figures show the children who have been “missed in primary care dentistry as the tooth decay is severe enough that they need hospital treatment, therefore it is likely that they have not regularly attended the dentist”.

“If they had gone to the dentist their tooth decay should have been picked up earlier and not reached the stage of extraction. The treatment occurring in secondary care implies the children are having their teeth extracted under general anaesthetic and means that tooth decay has reached extreme levels.”

Hunt called for more government action with dentists to raise awareness of the impact of sugar on tooth decay, and to improve access to NHS dental services for the poorest patients. “Around 40% of children still do not visit a dentist each year,” he said. “Regular visits provide rapid diagnosis and treatment to prevent children being hospitalised due to tooth decay.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Children’s teeth are dramatically healthier than they were 10 years ago, but we still know there is more to do. We are radically changing NHS dentistry, so that dentists will be paid for keeping the nation’s teeth healthy, rather than just for treating problems as they arise. All children are entitled to free NHS dental care and we want parents to take their children for regular checkups.”

Access to NHS dentists is improving, according to government figures, with 30 million patients seen by a dentist in the two years leading up to September 2015, an increase of 100,000 on the previous year.